Two men hanged in public after stealing rickshaw in Egypt

By: Moses Gold
Two men were killed by hanging in a public ceremony after they were caught red handed stealing a rickshaw in Egypt, according to press reports in the United States.

Egyptians beat the two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw on Sunday and then hung them by their feet while some in the crowd shouted “kill them!” Both men died, security officials said.

The killings come a week after the attorney general’s office encouraged civilians to catch criminals and hand them over to the police. The latest incident showed the chaos sweeping across Egypt and a security breakdown of terrifying proportions.

This was one of the most extreme cases of vigilantism in two years of a sharply deteriorating security situation after the uprising of 2011. The horrible photos quickly began circulating on Facebook and other social media, showing images taken by people in the crowd of thousands who saw and recorded the lynchings with cell phone cameras.

The murders occurred in Samanod City, about 55 miles or 90 kilometers north of Cairo, in the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya.

The state newspaper reported on its website that the Samanod events began when the two men were dragged through the streets after being caught red-handed trying to steal a motorized rickshaw. Witnesses said they also were accused of kidnapping a little girl inside the rickshaw, but that the girl escaped unhurt.